Watcha Wearing Wednesday

A silver origami crane I made ages ago from silver clay. I've been really eager to get back into working with the silver clay, but am having trouble finding a way to fuel my hotpot kiln here.



But I am very excited because I've booked into doing this silver smithing course. Unfortunately, I because of the dates, I couldn't enroll in this one and when I have a bit more time on my hands, I really want to do one at the Goldsmiths school (though I believe DH has called dibs on doing that one first).

Before I left the house this morning for a meeting at a store, I threw on my pair of kimono fabric shoes. It wasn't until I got home that I realised, they had a crane on them as well.

Visit Dear Fi for some more Wednesday fashions.

This is... my style and My Playday

Firstly, I have to apologise for not getting a photo done in time for this week's This is… theme.

But really, this is my style (minus the parasol)



Just add a large pendant and a couple of chunky silver rings, change the shoes to Mary Janes and that's it. That's me most days (days when I'm not just hanging around the house that is). It's usually the choice of the shirt (though almost always black and red and a variation on this theme) and the jewellery that individualise my style.

Thank you to Kitty’s Kaboodle for this weeks fun theme (even though I slacked off) and to Angela for hosting.

The reason why I was so slack this week, was that I was having too much fun on my play day. Do you want to see what I did?

I made this fabric origami crane. I'm wanting to make a stack of them and make them into mobiles. My hand stitching still leaves a lot to be desired though.

With the help of dh, I made a huge stack of fabric covered buttons ready to make some more magnets for the store. They've been flying out. Luckily, dh does the hard pushing stuff for me while he's watching tv.



And some Matryoshka / Babushka (can anyone tell me are they the same?) buttons.




And, what I'm super excited about - a silver origami crane. I may do some more polishing of it later, but I love the sculptural quality of it. I tried a couple of different techniques, the other one didn't work so well, but I have another idea for it and will play with it again at a later date. I can't wait to wear it to school tomorrow, with the outfit above of course.

This is... my creation!

.... and I'm so excited!

This post could also be called "This is... what I've been doing instead of all the other stuff I should be doing considering I fly out for my holidays in a couple of days"... but we won't worry about that will we? Thanks to Betty the Geek for this week's theme.

This was my second attempt using the silver clay. You can see my first attempt here. While I'm a complete beginner, I still thought you might be interested in how it all works and the mistakes I made along the way.

I found myself moving to different areas of the apartment for different stages. So this really was workspace number one.

What I have here is a packet of PMC3 and the PMC3 syringe. I've covered my cutting board in baking paper so that the clay doesn't stick. Under the baking paper is a mark out of the pieces I want to make and their sizes. On top of the baking paper, on either side of that markup is a few pieces of cardboard stacked to equal the height of what I want the clay pieces to be. In one bowl is water, the other olive oil. The olive oil is good to stop the clay from sticking to your hands and utensils. There's a straw to help shape the bead at the top and a film container to collect dry bits of clay. I put some of those bits into the lid with a bit of water and use a paintbrush to create slip, to help join pieces together. I have a dry and a wet hand towel. There's also a rolling pin, some kitchen towel and a knife.

The clay comes out like plasticine. It's really easy to use. I rolled it out and cut out the pieces in the sizes I'd marked out. I then let the clay sit to dry out a little. I left the olive oil coated straw in the bead to help it keep shape as it dried. When the clay was not longer so soft, I stamped a little butterfly into the back of the main piece using a normal rubber stamp.

Once the pieces were harder and could be moved around without changing shape, using the slip from the syringe, I joined the pieces together to create a box.

This is the back of the box.

And this is why I won't make a box shape again. It was so fragile. When I went to sand it pre-firing, bits broke off. Using the syringe, I repaired it, but was again too rough with it so once again, it came apart. I believe it would be much stronger after the firing, but I didn't want to take the risk. Instead, I reconstituted the clay (added water to it and stuck it in cling wrap overnight) and used it again.

This time I rolled a thicker piece of clay and used a baking paper covered rubber stamp to dent in the space I wanted. I rolled a little snake of clay and joined it at the top.

Once the clay is bone dry, it's ready to fire. There are a number of ways to fire the clay, but with the space considerations we have here in Japan, my husband bought me the "pot" kit. It's really cute. The heat comes from a solid fuel and once it's burnt out, as long as the piece isn't too big, it should be done. It all sits on a fire-resistant board. I love the little rosy-cheeked face the pot has when firing ;)

When it's fired and cool, the piece comes out looking very white. It's not a coating but actually the silver particles sitting straight up.

I had a few little explosions with my piece, I suspect there must have been a little moisture still in there (this is where my lack of patience comes in...). Luckily though, the three bumps were not in a critical place.

With a wire brush, you rub over the piece to bring out it's silver look. I also used some little files to sand off as much of those bumps as I could before I lost feeling in my hands. I also used them to file the top loop to make the shape a bit better. To get the piece to really shine, I then sanded it again, and again and again, each time working with a finer sandpaper, and then in the end with a silver polishing cloth.

The piece was then ready for the fabric. I backed the obi fabric with iron-on interfacing, cut it to shape and used a really good craft glue to adhere it. I had planned on using resin over the top (hence the original box design) but this piece wasn't deep enough for it.

I have to say, this is going to be a very addictive, but expensive hobby. I went to pick up some more silver clay the other day and boy, it's not cheap!

Before I go... here's a sneak peek at another work in progress....